Some embodiments described herein relate generally to methods and apparatus for a wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) system. In particular, but not by way of limitation, some embodiments described herein relate to methods and apparatus for logically associating routers and optical nodes in a WDM system.
In current optical communication systems, management of routers and optical transceivers (also referred to herein as “optical nodes”) are typically performed independently by different management systems. Each of the optical nodes is connected to multiple routers. Each of the routers forwards optical signals into multiple directions via multiple optical nodes. Therefore, a many-to-many relationship exists between the routers and the optical nodes. The routers, however, do not have the information as to how many optical nodes they are connected. Similarly, the optical nodes do not have the information as to how many routers they handle. The information of the associations between the routers and the optical nodes is desirable to the users of the routers so that the users can better control the interaction between the optical nodes and the routers.
Accordingly, a need exists for methods and apparatus to logically associate the ports of the routers with the optical nodes in an optical communication system.